


Countdown to Our Future

by BeccaBear93



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, KuroFai Gift Exchange 2017, M/M, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 19:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13278612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeccaBear93/pseuds/BeccaBear93
Summary: Kurogane and Fai might be kind of pissed at their siblings for meddling in their love lives, but that doesn't mean they aren't grateful for it, too.





	Countdown to Our Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cunttwatula](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cunttwatula/gifts).



> This is my fill for this year's KuroFai Gift Exchange for cunttwatula, who asked for a "New Year's Eve meet cute"... I am well aware of some of the mistakes and inconsistencies in this (the biggest one being that I wrote it with US New Year's Eve traditions in mind and didn't even realize until it was too late), so if this isn't what you were hoping for, just let me know and I'll try to write something for one of the other prompts. I hope you enjoy it all the same, though! :)
> 
> Note: To avoid confusion, I used Horitsuba naming conventions for this fic.

“Hey, Yu—” The blonde turns around and Kurogane grunts, brows scrunching in confusion when the face that greets him isn’t his coworker’s. “You’re not Yuui.”

The other man laughs delightedly. “How could you tell? Everybody always gets us mixed up.”

Kurogane just shrugs. Trying to explain would be pointless; they might look the same, but he can already tell that everything else about them is completely different. “Twins, then?”

“Yep! Got it in one!” he replies as though it isn’t obvious, eyes closed from the force of his smile. “I’m Fai, by the way.”

He eyes Fai’s extended hand warily for a long moment before shaking it. “Kurogane.” He rests his elbows on the railing that Fai’s been leaning back on and peers over the edge. He can just barely see people moving around at the bottom of the staircase, but they don’t hold his attention for long. Half-visible strangers aren’t nearly as interesting as the surreally beautiful man he’s just met, after all.

“So, Kuro-rinta—” Kurogane immediately takes back any complimentary thoughts he might have had. He growls in warning, but Fai completely ignores it and bowls on anyway. “What brings you here tonight? No date to spend New Year’s Eve with?”

He shakes his head. “My little sister dragged me here. No clue where Tomoyo ran off to now, though. Probably went to hunt down her friend and shove her into some fancy new outfit.”

Fai’s eyes light up in recognition and he giggles. “That explains it...” he mutters to himself. Kurogane instantly decides that he doesn’t want to know how this man and his sister might have met or what she might have told Fai about him.

“What about you?” he asks, just to change the subject before he can get too paranoid about Tomoyo’s plotting.

“My brother,” Fai answers, nodding towards Yuui, who’s stuck in the center of a throng of people. He chuckles. “He said he was too shy to come to the party on his own, but it looks like he got over _that_ pretty quickly.”

Kurogane looks over his shoulder and snorts. “I don’t know about that. It looks to me like he needs to be rescued.”

Fai just grins in response to the obvious ‘S.O.S.’ looks that Yuui is shooting his way. He waves and speaks out of the corner of his mouth. “Well, he can find someone else to save him, then.”

“He do something to piss you off?”

“Not exactly...” he says, finally turning to face Kurogane directly. “I’m just not too happy about him teaming up with your sister to scheme behind our backs.”

“So you caught onto that too.”

“Yep. It’s... not exactly a _new_ issue for me.”

Kurogane hesitates but eventually admits, “Me either.”

“But...” Fai continues in a sing-song, “At least he chose someone attractive and interesting this time.”

Kurogane will deny the sudden rush of blood to his face until the day he dies. Eager to deflect the attention away from himself, he says, “I find it hard to believe that he’d try to set you up with someone you wouldn’t like. He’s too nice.”

“Hmm? That almost sounded like a compliment! Does Kuro-tan like Yuui more than me?” Fai jokingly pouts. Kurogane shoots him an irritated look and he relents, smile turning almost wistful as he admits, “Yeah. He is. Yuui tries his hardest, I’ll give him that, and I know he only wants me to be happy but...”

“But you want him to stop interfering and focus on himself instead of worrying about you.”

“Exactly. I guess Kuro-sama and Tomoyo-chan are close too, huh?”

“I don’t know if I’d say _that_...”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Fai replies with a grin and a patronizing pat on the arm. “But it’s true.”

Kurogane grumbles but doesn’t make any real effort to deny it. Silence falls as they both stare into the darkness beyond the building’s glass wall. After a few minutes, he straightens. “I’m gonna get a drink,” he says.

Fai’s face falls, clearly taking the comment as an excuse to escape, but the smile is back in a flash. “Of course. It w—”

“You want anything?” Kurogane cuts him off before he can start babbling out goodbyes. It’s only because he has no clue where Tomoyo is, there’s no way to get through the crowd to Yuui, and nobody else he knows is here to pass the time with. It has nothing to do with a sudden burning hatred for the fake smile Fai’s plastered on, or with a desire to see the real one again.

Fai lights up again, and it definitely doesn’t make Kurogane’s heart skip a beat or three. Really. “Thanks, Kuro-tan! I’ll take whatever they’ve got with alcohol in it.”

Kurogane eyes him cautiously, wondering if that’s really a good idea. Then he remembers that it’s not his place to police a near-stranger, especially when he was already planning to get something alcoholic for himself. He nods curtly after a few seconds and turns on his heel without another word.

\-----

Fai watches Kurogane stride away and rubs at his temples.

 _What have you gotten me into, Yuui?_ he wonders, staring his brother down from the opposite side of the room. Yuui suddenly glances up to meet his eye and grins, blindingly bright. Despite the common belief of nearly everyone who knows them, they can’t communicate telepathically. Sometimes even Fai himself doubts that fact because of how easily his brother can read him, though.

He slips his cell phone out of his pocket to text Yuui. _I’ll get my revenge for this_ he swears. Fai watches his brother check the message, but as expected, he doesn’t take it seriously. That’s fine. He wasn’t really supposed to. Yuui knows just as well as Fai does that he’d never actually do anything to hurt him.

Yuui laughs, waves, and then turns back to the discussion he was having. Fai sighs and puts his phone away just as Kurogane returns, bearing drinks and an almost apologetic expression.

“They only had this fancy crap,” he complains, and Fai laughs.

“That’s fine,” he says. He takes a drink and grins when he discovers that it’s actually one of the rare champagnes that taste good. “Better than fine, in fact.”

Kurogane gives him a suspicious look and tests his own. He doesn’t say anything, but his frown disappears, and Fai’s pretty sure that means he likes it. They sip their drinks in silence for a few minutes, watching the party-goers mill around the room. “I don’t feel even slightly tipsy,” Kurogane says a while after he finishes.

Fai chuckles and gulps down the last of his own drink. “Neither do I,” he says, “But that’s not really surprising. It takes a lot to get me drunk.”

Kurogane nods, whether as an acknowledgement or a ‘me too,’ and Fai walks back to the bar to drop off their glasses. When he returns, the silence quickly slips from comfortable to stifling. “So...” Fai starts awkwardly. “What’s your job like, Kuro-sama?”

The other man glances at him out of the corner of his eye, unimpressed. “I’m sure you already know. I do the same work your brother does.”

“Right...”

Fai tries to ask about his family, his hobbies, and any other small talk he can think of, and is shut down with brisk, simple answers at every turn. Eventually he gets the hint that Kurogane just isn’t much of a talker. He seems content to listen, though, so Fai babbles about anything that comes to mind. After a while, he starts making a game out of trying to annoy him. Kurogane plays along for a bit, but it doesn’t take long to figure out that most of his reactions are exaggerated and he’s more amused than irritated.

Usually, Yuui is the only person to focus on Fai. It’s not that nobody else _would_ ; he just prefers to keep conversations about the other person most of the time. It’s a strange feeling to have someone other than his brother listen to him talk about himself.

Fai’s a little surprised by how _nice_ it is.

So maybe he enjoys it a bit too much, rambles a bit too long, and lets the walls around his heart slip a bit too far. He can’t quite bring himself to regret it though, especially when Kurogane chimes in with the occasional interesting insight or opinion. It’s dizzying to have the full attention of someone so fascinating, and Fai somehow _knows_ that Kurogane would see right through it if he tried to lie or hide anyway.

So he doesn’t try. He just talks and talks until he’s looser than the alcohol ever could have made him, and revels in it while he can.

\-----

Kurogane has no idea why his sister decided to try to set him up with Fai. They’re obviously complete opposites in most ways, and he’s not sure why she thought they would fit together.

But somehow... they kind of do.

That’s obvious enough from the fact that he’s somehow spent _hours_ listening to the blonde and hasn’t had any strong urges to kill him or even just to walk away, even if he might act otherwise. In fact, he doesn’t even notice how much time has passed until the idiot suddenly starts swatting his arm repeatedly and points to a huge television mounted on one of the walls.

“Oh! Look, look!” Fai shouts. He grins and practically vibrates with childlike excitement. “The countdown’s about to start!”

“Okay...?”

“Ten!” Fai suddenly yells with the rest of the crowd. When Kurogane doesn’t join in, Fai tugs on his arm and aims a pout at him that should be illegal.

“Nine,” Kurogane says quietly, rolling his eyes.

“Eight!” Fai rewards him with a quick smile and turns back to the TV.

“Seven.” Kurogane watches the blonde out of the corner of his eye, barely even trying to hide the sudden pang of fondness that Fai’s genuine joy and enthusiasm cause.

“Six!” Fai is still absentmindedly clinging to his arm.

“Five!” Everyone in the room is suddenly shouting louder, the anticipation tangible.

“Four!” Most of the crowd is split up into pairs now, couples clinging to each other’s hands or staring into each other’s eyes.

“Three.” Kurogane pulls Fai up against his side before he can overthink the impulse.

“Two!” Fai flashes him a grin that could light up the whole room.

“One.” Kurogane ruffles his hair roughly to counterbalance the sudden sappiness.

“Happy New Year!” Everything is suddenly on fast-forward, so many things happening at once that Kurogane can’t quite process it all.

Everyone cheers. Some people are blowing noisemakers or popping tiny confetti guns. The sights and sounds are overwhelming.

Fireworks go off onscreen. The newscasters start their speeches to welcome in the new year.

Fai drags him down by the back of his neck to kiss him. Kurogane thinks that he manages to kiss back, despite being pretty much frozen in shock. He isn’t entirely sure.

Fai pulls away and drops his hand, and the world returns to normal speed.

\-----

It was a stupid, instinctual, spur-of-the-moment decision. He never should have done that.

“Wha—?” Kurogane’s red face shows his surprise clearly, along with embarrassment that, for him, could easily turn to murderous rage.

Fai never was one to shy away from danger, though. They aren’t touching anymore, but he doesn’t pull back more than a few inches, either. “It’s tradition,” he explains with a wide smile. He can’t tell if it’s real or not. Kurogane would probably know; the man already sees through him irritatingly easily. Fai gestures to the bubble they’ve carved around them that nobody else has dared to enter all night. “And it’s not like there was anyone else close enough to give a New Year’s kiss to, Kuro-puu!”

Kurogane glances around, then gives an exasperated sigh. “Why can’t you just be honest, idiot?”

“Hmm? What do you mean, Kuro-rin?” His mind is screaming at him to escape while he still can. In a desperate, pitiful attempt to deflect, he says, “Hehe, that rhymed! I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it!”

Kurogane opens his mouth to respond but snaps it shut again after a moment. With a shake of his head, he roughly pulls Fai closer. By contrast, the kiss he places against his lips is almost heartbreakingly gentle. It’s slow and sweet and so very different from the last one, and Fai can’t help but melt into it no matter how many warning bells are going off in his head.

There’s a hand at the small of his back to keep him close and another twining its way through his hair. Fai gives a quiet hum of encouragement and curls his own hands around Kurogane’s collar and bicep. The sounds of celebration fade out of his awareness. Some distant part of his mind marvels at how this man could already mean so much when they met mere hours ago. The rest of it is focused on memorizing the feel of Kurogane’s lips, the weight against his back, the small noises, just in case he’ll never have them again.

The fingers in his hair clench, tugging lightly. He gasps, and Kurogane takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss. Fai nips at Kurogane’s bottom lip in retaliation and revels in the low moan it earns him, barely audible over his own pulse rushing in his ears.

When they finally part, the first thing Fai sees is Kurogane’s red eyes staring intently into his own. It should be terrifying, knowing how easily he could pick him apart.

Fai has never been less scared of anything in his life.

The second thing he sees, after he eventually manages to tear his gaze away and glances over Kurogane’s shoulder, is his brother. His brother, who is wearing the smuggest smile he’s ever seen. His brother, who he still kind of wants to throttle for constantly interfering in his love life. His brother, who he might need to buy an enormous thank-you gift for now.

Fai rolls his eyes, but smiles and waves. Kurogane turns to follow his gaze and gives a quiet snort. “You know, he’s one of the few people I work with who I actually respect,” he starts conversationally, standing up straight and moving out of Fai’s space again. “He gets the job done, keeps his head down, and doesn’t bother me with pointless chatter.”

Fai chuckles but doesn’t interrupt. Kurogane clearly isn’t finished yet.

“But I’m starting to see that they’re actually a lot more alike than I thought.” Although he’s scowling, Fai gets the feeling that he isn’t actually as annoyed as he’s trying to be.

“Tomoyo-chan?” Fai guesses. Kurogane nods, and he chuckles. “You’ve never seen the two of them together, have you?”

“No. I didn’t even know they’d ever met before.”

“Well, they have, because I model for her sometimes.” Kurogane blinks in surprise, and Fai gestures to his outfit. “I’m surprised you didn’t recognize her handiwork. Everything she makes is... very unique.”

“True.” He gives Fai’s suit a once-over and nods. He should’ve known immediately that it was one of his sister’s creations—just another part of her plan, no doubt.

“Anyways,” Fai continues, “They really are like two peas in a pod, once she gets Yuui to open up a bit. It’s almost scary,” he concludes with an exaggerated shiver.

Kurogane raises an eyebrow, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “You’re one to talk. I hope I never have to deal with all three of you in the same room. _That_ would be scary.”

“Oh? Does that mean that you plan to see me again, Kuro-tan?” Fai teases, leaning closer.

Kurogane just watches him for a few seconds before making a noise that almost sounds like a laugh and moving to lean against the railing again. Fai gives a small smile and stares out at the crowd with him, taking it for the answer it is. It doesn’t take very long to learn Kuro-speak if you really try.

\-----

“So? Did you enjoy the party?” Tomoyo asks with a knowing smile. She strides a few steps ahead, layers upon layers of skirts bouncing around her, and turns to face him. She could make the entire walk home backwards (and has done so before). Somehow she always seems to perfectly predict where people or obstacles will be and maneuver around them gracefully.

Kurogane grunts noncommittally and she giggles, enjoying his discomfort far too much.

“Meet anyone interesting?” she presses.

“Like you don’t know,” he says with a glare. Tomoyo continues to stare at him, one eyebrow raised as she waits for more details. After a long minute, Kurogane rolls his eyes and shoves his left sleeve up.

Tomoyo moves closer to peer at it. Then she laughs delightedly and claps her hands together. “Hmm... I’m pretty sure I recognize that phone number,” she sings teasingly.

“I’m sure you do, considering he’s one of your models,” he replies with an accusatory look.

Tomoyo turns around and falls into step beside him again. A minute later, she finds herself suddenly yanked close to her brother’s side with his hand ruffling her hair completely out of shape. Her smile softens and she leans her head against his shoulder. “You’re welcome, nii-san,” she says quietly.

Kurogane hums in acknowledgement, barely audible, and they continue their walk in silence. After a while, a smirk spreads slowly across Tomoyo’s face, and she does her best to hide it behind her hair. She darts out of her brother’s reach, quickly slipping her high heels off for the chase that she _knows_ will follow her next words. “Just make sure you remember to invite me to the wedding!”

She’s already sprinting down the road, dodging around the few other people who are still out. Kurogane’s outraged roar echoes behind her and she laughs breathlessly, not daring to slow down.

“Really though,” Tomoyo mutters to nobody but herself, her grin only growing as images from a recent dream flash through her head. “I’m completely serious. But I guess I can’t blame him for not realizing that, since it won’t happen for a few years yet.”


End file.
